Gaming machines which provide players awards in primary or base games are available. Gaming machines may generally require the player to place or make a wager to activate the primary or base game. In many of these gaming machines, the award may be based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or symbol combination and on the amount of the wager (e.g., the higher the wager, the higher the award). Generally, symbols or symbol combinations which are less likely to occur usually provide higher awards. In such known gaming machines, the amount of the wager made on the base game by the player may vary.
Gaming machines which may provide secondary or bonus games are also available. The secondary or bonus games usually provide an additional award, such as a bonus award, to the player. Secondary or bonus games usually do not require an additional wager by the player to be activated. Instead, secondary or bonus games may generally be activated or triggered upon an occurrence of a designated triggering symbol or triggering symbol combination in the primary or base game. For instance, a bonus symbol occurring on the payline on the third reel of a three reel slot machine may trigger the secondary bonus game. When a secondary or bonus game is triggered, the gaming machine may generally indicate this triggering to the player through one or more visual and/or audio output devices, such as the reels, lights, speakers, video screens, etc. Part of the enjoyment and excitement of playing certain gaming machines is the occurrence or triggering of the secondary or bonus game (even before the player knows how much the bonus award will be).
Available player tracking systems may enable gaming establishments to recognize the value of customer loyalty through identifying frequent and/or high wagering players and rewarding them for their patronage. The cumulative history of a particular player's gaming activity, which may be included in a player profile of a typical player tracking system, may enable gaming establishments to target individual players with direct marketing promotions or customized reward plans. In typically available player tracking systems, the gaming establishment may issue each participating player a player identification card which has an encoded player identification or player tracking account number that uniquely identifies that player. When the player may sit down at a gaming machine, the player may insert the player tracking card into a card reader which may send information or data to a player tracking system to identify the player and the player's player tracking account. Before or upon the player removing their player tracking card, the gaming machine may communicate information or data relating to the player's gaming session to the player tracking system. Upon the conclusion of the player's current gaming session, the player tracking system may update the player's player tracking account accordingly. Since different gaming establishments may each maintain a distinct player tracking account for a player (and thus may provide a distinct player tracking card to the player), players that frequent a plurality of different gaming establishments may need to carry a plurality of different player tracking cards with them. Accordingly, there is a continuing need to enable players that are enrolled in a plurality of player tracking systems to avoid having to carry a plurality of different player tracking cards.
Additionally, while available player tracking systems may reward identified players for their patronage, certain players may prefer to remain anonymous. These players must often forgo the marketing promotions and/or customized reward plans associated with identified players. That is, even if such unidentified players have comparable wagering activities to certain identified players (and may thus be comparably valued by a gaming establishment), the decision to remain anonymous may cause these unidentified to be treated differently by the gaming establishment. Accordingly, there is a continuing need to equate the customer loyalty values of both identified players (i.e., players who choose to enroll in a player tracking system) and unidentified or anonymous players (i.e., player who choose not to enroll in a player tracking system).